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Review of General Conference talks of President Dallin H. Oaks,
April 1995 through October 1999

      • April 1995 —  Apostasy and Restoration
        • We would be wiser if we could restore the knowledge of some important tings that have been distorted, ignored, or forgotten.  This applies to religious knowledge.  It explains the need for the gospel restoration we proclaim.
        • We must begin with the truth about God and our relationship with Him.
        • God the Father is not just a spirit but is a glorified person with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ.
        • There are three separate members of the Godhead, and all three were manifested at the baptism of Jesus.
        • Jesus declared that he was in the express image of his Father in Heaven and he also taught his followers to be one as he and his Father were one, and that he was a Messiah who would die on a cross and later appear to his followers as a resurrected being with flesh and bones.
        • The Nicene Creed erased the idea of a separate being of Father and Son by defining God the Son as being of one substance with the Father.
        • Due to a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine, the orthodox Christians of that day lost the fulness of truth about the nature of God and the Godhead.
        • The personal God of the New Testament was replaced by the abstract, incomprehensible deity defined by compromise with the speculative principles of Greek philosophy.
        • The divine declaration made by Jesus during the First Vision to Joseph Smith was a condemnation of the creeds of the day, NOT of the faithful seekers who believed in them.
        • We do not claim sufficient spiritual maturity to fully comprehend God or his nature, nor do we equate our imperfect mortal bodies to his immortal, glorified being.
        • The Bible describes mortals as “the children of God” and as “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”  It also declares that “we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”  It tells us that we will be “like him” when He shall appear again.  We take these teachings literally.
        • We proclaim that we will eventually be assigned to a kingdom of glory for which our obedience has qualified us.  The Apostle Paul described these kingdoms.  The following describes the highest kingdom of glory: “…whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God.”
        • Eternal life is not a mysterious union with an incomprehensible spirit-god.  Eternal life is family life with a loving Father in Heaven and with our progenitors and our posterity.
        • The purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to help all of the children of God understand their potential and achieve their highest destiny.  Our highest aspiration is to be like our heavenly parents.
        • It is the reality of these glorious possibilities that causes us to proclaim our message of restored Christianity to all people, even to good practicing Christians with other beliefs.
      • October 1995 — Powerful Ideas
        • A funeral service is a time to speak of powerful ideas, such as the purpose of life.
        • We will be judged by every idle word that we speak (Matthew 12:36).
        • We should cease from light speeches, light-mindedness, and we should cast away idle thoughts and excess of laughter.
        • Some knowledge is more important than others.  This includes spiritual knowledge.
        • Young people should have the powerful thought and idea that they are children of God.
        • How different our world would be if brotherly and sisterly love and unselfish assistance could transcend all boundaries of nations and creeds.
        • The eternal truth that our Heavenly Father loves all His children is an immensely powerful idea.
        • Another powerful idea is that mortal life has a purpose and that mortal death is not the end but only a transition for us.
        • The work of the Church of Jesus Christ is to bring to pass the eternal life of mankind.
        • A powerful idea with immediate practical application is the reality that we can pray to our Heavenly Father and He will hear our prayers and help us.
        • The most powerful ideas of Christian thought and faith are the resurrection and the atonement of Jesus Christ.
        • Our model and our first priority is Jesus — we must testify of Him.
        • Jesus always builds us up and never tears us down.
        • Do the purposes and actions portrayed in our chosen entertainment build up or tear down the children of God?  There is a trend to displace what builds up and dignifies the children of God with portrayals and performances that are depressing, demeaning, and destructive.
        • “Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.”  A survivor of the Donner party.
        • ” I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ.”
      • April 1996 — Joseph, the Man and the Prophet
        • Joseph Smith was a man of the frontier, young, emotional, dynamic, and so loved and approachable by his people that they often called him ‘Brother Joseph’.
        • Overarching his ministry were his comparative youth, his superficial formal education, and his incredibly rapid acquisition of knowledge and maturity.
        • He had more than his share of mortal afflictions.  He was attacked physically on many occasions.
        • The Lord told him, “In temporal labors thou shalt not have strength, for this is not thy calling.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 24:9)
        • He stated that he had never committed great or malignant sins since it was not in his disposition to commit such.
        • The 116 manuscript pages were lost because Joseph yielded to entreaties and loaned them to Martin Harris.  The Lord said to him, “How oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God, and have gone on in the persuasions of men.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 3:6).
        • The Lord told Joseph to repent or he would be stripped of his prophetic role.  Later commandments commanded him to repent and walk more uprightly.  He was rebuked for not keeping the commandments.
        • Joseph had a cheery temperament.  He delighted in the society of his friends.
        • Joseph was resolute in doing his duty.  He took seriously his calling and responsibilities.
        • He was strong physically.  At one time he wrestled the ‘bully of Ramus’ and threw him to the ground.
        • He said, “Although I was called of my Heavenly Father to lay the foundation of this great work and kingdom in this dispensation, and testify of His revealed will to Israel, I am subject to like passions as other men…”
        • In 1852, a legal proceeding found no fraud or other moral impropriety by the Prophet.
        • Joseph once said that he would rather have a six-shooter than all the lawyers in Illinois.
        • His private and public character was impeachable, and he lived an died as a man of God.

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